


Bully

by SpyVsTailor



Category: Boardwalk Empire
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 05:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5773348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyVsTailor/pseuds/SpyVsTailor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teddy gets bullied and learns a valuable lesson from a visiting Mr. Rothstein.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bully

The former Mrs. Thompson was a pleasant woman.

Arnold appreciated fine things in his life and that included women.

More importantly at the moment he appreciated this woman for she was elegant and clever, something he had always admired.

But it was the way she demurely got nervous around him, she could go head to head with a Minotaur, but she had these moments where her stalwart heart shied and she blushed sweetly.

Sitting on her davenport sipping at his evening tea, he watched her as she checked on their dinner, recalling with amusement her surprise when he finally accepted her offer for a meal and the way she hurriedly explained they were having a beef roast.

He wondered if he flustered her or if she was naturally like this.

Beside him on the davenport Emily quietly did her arithmetic homework, her little head bent to her schoolbook.

When she had joined him, he didn’t miss the way she sat closer to him than the armrest and it pleased him a little.

Children were loud and obnoxious little things, but he found himself liking this one. She was quiet and had her mother’s wise eyes.

In all honesty the whole scene was rather domestic and he found himself enjoying it. It felt like a strange game to him, one where he won if he managed to fit in.

So he remained quiet, sipping his tea and watching Miss Rohan move around her kitchen.

The apartment he had put them in was large and open spaced, so he could see the pretty brown curls of the woman bobbing as she bent her head to check on the roast.

The silence and tranquility of the moment was broken by thumping in the hall outside the door, followed by the loud, clumsy rattling of the knob.

“Teddy, you’re late for–”

Miss Rohan’s words died in her throat and Arnold was curious enough to turn around in his spot in order to see what silenced her.

Her son stood in the doorway, blood running from his nose, over his lips and down his chin, his left eye looked swollen and ready to close entirely.

“What happened?” Miss Rohan demanded, immediately moving to drop to her knees before her son to examine his face.

He pulled away from her sullenly and marched off to his room, slamming the door behind him.

“Teddy?” She cried after him.

Arnold stood up, teacup and saucer still in hand, watching as Miss Rohan followed her son to his closed bedroom door down the hall. She knocked worriedly.

“Teddy, please? Are you alright? What happened?”

Arnold knew immediately what it was. He lived in New York long enough and knew enough street kids to know how it was. The boy had been beat down by some punk kid.

Miss Rohan turned to him with a furrowed brow. He could tell she had no idea what to do, so he took a sip of tea, before setting his cup and saucer aside.

“I’m sure he just got into a little scrap,” he assured her. “Boys will do that.”

Instead she turned back to the door and knocked again, softer.

“Teddy? Come out, my darling. Please?”

After a while, Miss Rohan slowly, hesitatingly returned to the kitchen, Arnold remained standing for a moment, before saying, “may I wash up for dinner?”

“Down the hall,” she called over.

Nodding, he walked towards the short hall that held the bedrooms and bathroom, pausing by Teddy’s closed door. Glancing over his shoulder, he found Miss Rohan still in the kitchen, busy with setting the table.

Reaching into his pocket for his bill fold, he pulled out a twenty and knelt down, sliding half of it under the door and scratching on the hardwood just enough to get the occupants attention.

There was silence, then the soft footfalls of shoes.

Arnold pulled the twenty away and stood up, as Teddy curiously opened the door.

The poor boy’s good eye was rimmed with red from crying, his face battered and painful to look at.

“Oh, hello, Teddy,” he greeted the boy jovially. “Sorry, must have dropped from my pocket.”

Teddy eyed the floor in shame.

Reaching for his handkerchief, Arnold held it out to the boy. “Put some cold water on this and then hold it to your eye, it'll keep it from closing.”

The boy was quiet, still sullenly eyeing the floor.

“Come with me, I’ll show you how,” Arnold suggested with a small smile, placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder and guiding him to the bathroom.

Sitting the boy on the edge of the bathtub, he ran his handkerchief under cold water and said, “when I was little I used to hide from a lot of people. I thought I was safer that way.” He turned around and stooped enough to tend to the boy’s face. “But one day while leaving school this big fellow named Novak jumped on me and pushed my face down into the mud. I almost drowned.”

The room was quiet as he carefully wiped away the blood on the boy’s face, Teddy was still sullen, miserable, allowing his face to be treated.

“You’re not my father,” the boy finally said simply.

“No,” Arnold replied just as plainly. They were quiet again as he rinsed the blood out of the handkerchief and then handed it over to the boy to hold against his eye.

“Jackie Cianci said I had to pay him five dollars a week or he’d beat me up,” Teddy finally whispered. “I didn’t do anything to him.”

Arnold proceeded to wash his hands, the purpose for his trip to the bathroom, but he remained quiet, allowing the boy time to process his words. His father had always said ‘think before you speak’, they were wise words, kept a cool head for Arnold in the worst of situations.

“How’d you get that Novak kid off you?” Teddy asked after a few seconds passed by.

“I jerked my head back by accident and broke his nose with it,” Arnold said. “Coming to eat with us? Your mother has cooked a fine meal. It smells delicious.”

Teddy nodded after a minute, but stopped them at the door by asking, “what happened? I mean he must have been pretty mad about you breaking his nose.”

“After I broke his nose?” Arnold had to think about it for a moment. “I sent flowers to his mother.”

“You killed him?” Teddy asked.

“No, nothing like that, but there’s nothing so terrifying in all the world as confusion. Besides, a man must always be a gentleman, even when dealing with unsavory aspects of life.”

The boy was quiet, following him out in the living room, heading for the dining room.

**Author's Note:**

> One more piece of fanfiction femur from the boneyard. One more Marnie because I need it.


End file.
